Israeli Elections Facts

Published February 6th, 2001 - 02:00 GMT

Ballots are opened at seven o’clock in the morning and most of them are closed at 10 in the evening (in places having less than 150 eligible voters, b

Ballots are opened at seven o’clock in the morning and most of them are closed at 10 in the evening (in places having less than 150 eligible voters, ballots are closed at eight o’clock in the evening).

More than four and a half million voters can vote at 7, 406 ballots in 18 areas throughout the country.

Elections also took place at 950 ballots at the army units where regular army and reserve military personnel vote.

Elections official results will be announced next Tuesday but the final results will be announced by the chairman of the elections committee coming Thursday.

The elected candidate should present his cabinet to the Knesset within 45 days as from next Tuesday, the day on which the official results will be announced.

If the elected candidate fails to form his cabinet until the ultimatum, new elections for the prime minister will be run within 60 days.

The premier should have the budget passed by the Knesset not later than the 31st of March. If he fails, new Knesset and Premier elections will be run within 90 days.

Israel at the Ballots

According to the Central Statistics Bureau, there are 69.5 percent of Jew voters who have voted before, 3 percent of eligible Jews who are going to vote for the first time, 12.5 percent of Arab voters and 15 percent of new immigrant voters. Thirty percent of voters are traditional, 50 percent are secular, 8 percent are fundamentalists and 12 percent are religious.

According to a study carried out by the Research Institute, Dialogue, it has been revealed that 23 percent of the immigrants have not yet decided for whom to vote versus 46 percent of voters who will vote for Sharon and 25 percent who promised to vote for Barak.

The lack of confidence among 36 percent of the voters in any of the candidates, the belief among 30 percent of them that the two candidates have drawbacks and the ignorance among 15 percent of voters regarding the candidates have been the reasons behind the reluctance of the voters, according to the study – Albawaba.com